Sony A7II - Trust the "peaking" or not?

[Linde]

Hi again,

 

I am hearing from none Sony Alpha users that I should not trust the peaking feature on my A7II.  with that being said, I have noticed from time to time that the final result may not always be as crisp and clean as I would like even though I dialed in on the most robust peaking when I pulled the trigger on the shots.  Is anyone else experiencing similar issues?  If so, what can I do to ensure I am capturing perfect shots?  And I am talking about shots where my ISO is between 200-640, 1/60-1/125 and F/1.8 and higher...  Does not seem to make much difference if i'm shooting from tripod or hand held.  Thoughts?

 

Mike

[Trad]

I read somewhere, sorry I can't remember where or who it was, that the best method is to use Creative Style and set it to vivid.

That works pretty well, much more so than peaking. I shoot Raw and have my "creative Style" set to Vivid +3, 0, +3, and you get a sort of shimmering effect / moire effect in the area that's in focus, and on Focus magnify, it's very close.

[MikeTison]

I first start focusing with "focus peaking" then set one of my custom buttons to "focus magnification" and use that to ensure my subject is focused. takes some time getting use to but works well for me

[Trad]

It was our Italian friend "addicted2light", in the thread further down titled "Anyway to speed up focus when vintage primes are on A7ii"

[SpaceManSpiff]

Hi Mike,

Trad and Mike Tison have given you some great tips.  Trads tip works primarily if you are a RAW shooter, btw.

 

I find focus peaking to be a bit of a misnomer.  It well get you in the ballpark but is not precise enough for my use.  I do still use it , but primarily as a DOF tool and as a zone focus tool for quick action situations (sports, events, street photography).  

[Lescatalpas]

the amount of focus peaking can be too much. there are 3 levels. I use focus peaking to get close to perfect focus and do final adjustment with focus magnification. Only then you are sure to have a clean shot. Nothing to do with raw or jpeg.

[Linde]

You guys ROCK!  Thanks for the comments and tips.  I did a test last night with this focus thing and found that when I get ma peaking then tap to focus magnification and fine tune that way, I do get more consistent results...  Of course I will test this theory more and I will experiment with simply turning the peaking off as well.  

 

Do any of you use the 70-200mm Sony G OSS lens?  I am thinking of adding this lens to my arsenal but I don't know if it could equal the 28-135mm G OSS I have (amazing lens).  

[pfogle]

I think focus peaking is a bit hit or miss for the really large apertures, ie it doesn't really work for me with f1.4 or so. I can be 2-3cm behind or in front at a couple of meters, enough to throw out critical focus.

 

Although it's a drag, I think that above about f4, you just have to use the magnifier. I keep it on the button right next to the shutter...

[christer]

Nothing beats AF or Eye-AF with an A7.  I have sold all my MF lenses - although I had used MF lenses for decades on Leica Ms.

[Bindegal]

A lot of the time I shoot manual focus with my A7 II. One of my key points of getting the camera was to involve myself more in the process rather than relying on autofocus, as I mostly had to do on my good olde Canon 50D. That´s basically the only way I could ever afford f/1.4 glass.

 

Anyways back to the focus peaking. The peaking highlights areas with high contrast, but with sort of a caveat. It seems like it highlights areas with high contrast based on what´s in the reduced resolution of viewfinder. Not the actual image as it´s taken from the sensor. 

Hence the peaking can´t be used blindly. Still highly useful but can take a bit of time to hit spot on depending on aperture.

Various methods I use. Speed prioritized.

Method 1: I quickly focus near/far to find the outer limits where my chosen focal point starts peaking. Then I focus just between the two. Quick method when you get the hang of it.

Method 2: As others have indicated, zoom in, focus.

Method 3: Go to your maximum aperture, bringing down depth of field. Then focus, and stop down to desired aperture and your chosen focal point should be spot on. Can be combined with both of the above.

 

/A

[Monochrome]

One advantage of an electronic display/viewfinder is that you can set the camera to display in black and white This can be helpful in composing and focus peaking the image.

I learned this in a class taught by George DeWolfe. He showed photographs of French impressionist paintings converted to black and white. This monochrome conversion brought out how the elements of the composition work together, without the distraction of color. He suggested this monochrome view is also helpful in composing a photograph. Subsequently I have often set my m4/3 and now my a7 viewfinder to B&W (on the Picture Effect menu) as an aid in composition.

A second benefit on the a7 is that focus peaking (I use yellow) is easier to see when the display is in monochrome. As others have noted, critical focusing is best done using the manual focus assist at 5x and 11x, but focus peaking on a 1x view helps identify what other areas are in or out of focus that may be important in the image. Then, to set what depth of field (DOF) you will get when the lens stops down, stop the aperture down and adjust the aperture to get the DOF you want. Again the advantage of an electronic viewfinder is that if the camera is set to emulate what the exposure will look like, the viewfinder does not dim as an optical viewfinder does and the focus peaking changes, highlighting the areas that come in or out of focus as the lens aperture is adjusted.

 

I find the above so useful for my photography that one custom button on my a7 is programmed for manual focus assist (1st press displays area to be magnified, 2nd press gives 5x, 3rd press gives 11x). I selected the C3 button for this because this is already the default button to zoom /enlarge/magnify an already recorded image, a similar effect. Another custom button (C4) is programmed to stop down the lens to the current  aperture setting. My manual focus procedure is first frame the composition, next initial focus using peaking, then select the spot for critical focus and focus on that, next stop down the lens and adjust aperture for desired DOF, and finally press the shutter release.